Here's What the Latest Research Says About Eating Your Placenta

Kourtney Kardashian did it. So did January Jones, Katherine Heigl and Alicia Silverstone. You may even personally know someone who’s chosen to eat her placenta for all of the vitamins, minerals, nutrients and hormones it packs in — which advocates say may help stave off postpartum depression (PPD), increase energy and boost milk supply. But if you’ve been considering eating your placenta too, a new study, published this month in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, might give you pause. Researchers found that eating placenta has no proven benefits and can even be a health hazard.

What the study looked at

Austrian and American researchers reviewed a total of 101 studies, or all the known research published in the national library of medicine and/or available on PubMed (two of the main sources for published research), since the early 1900s. They reviewed the studies’ design and findings to see if they supported any benefits of eating the placenta along with the potential harms of the practice.

What it found

The study authors found very few studies have been done on the topic, and most have been of "poor quality." The only randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study — considered the gold standard in scientific circles — of placenta eating they found compared women who ate placenta pills to those who got a placebo, or fake, pill (neither group knew which they were getting). While small (just 23 women participated), the study found that the pills only contained 24 percent of a woman’s daily iron needs — and taking the pills had no effect at all on the moms’ iron levels. The authors acknowledged that other research has found that the hormones estrogen and progesterone can survive the encapsulation process, but it’s yet unknown if the body is able to process them in this form — and what effect, if any, it could have on PPD.

On the flipside, eating placenta can pose potentially serious health risks. If placenta is not properly prepared, it can harbor dangerous bacteria and viruses including HIV, hepatitis and Zika. In fact, a report earlier this year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discussed one case where a new mom and her baby got extremely sick from group B strep (GBS) in placenta pills that were presumably not heated well enough to kill off the bacteria. The authors also say that toxic substances like cadmium, a heavy metal, has been found in "a low but detectable amount" in placenta pills, which could be dangerous if taken over time. The paper also notes that while animals do indeed eat their placenta, no current cultures (other than Americans) eat their placentas.

"For those who are considering eating their placenta, I would tell them that it is potentially harmful and that there are no proven benefits of this practice," says Alex Farr, PhD, the paper’s lead author. Due to these potential harms, Farr says it’s unethical for researchers to do more studies to confirm any benefits. He also suggests there should be official standards for the production of placenta pills, especially around the temperature and duration of dehydration.

What this means for you

Experts agree that at least as of now, there are no known benefits to eating your placenta. But if you’re set on giving it a try, check ahead of time with your hospital or birthing center that you can take your placenta home — many facilities consider it a biohazard and dispose of it after birth. Even if you are able to take it home and freeze it or cook it right away, it’s risky: the placenta can harbor dangerous bacteria, so it needs to be cooked properly — and it’s difficult to ensure that you’re completing every step of the preparation process perfectly.

A safer option might be to send your placenta off to a facility that makes placenta pills, which prepare placenta for between $200 to $400. However, even these facilities are prone to dangerous error, per the CDC’s report. As of now, there are no official rules that these companies are required to follow, and they’re not monitored by the Food and Drug Administration — so there’s really no one to monitor that they’re living up to their claims.

Bottom line, says Farr: "It’s best not to consume the placenta at all."